Conventionally, in order to implement high-level automated operation in a plant or factory or the like, a distributed control system (DCS) has been constituted by using a communication means to connect measuring instruments, actuators and the like, which are on-site devices referred to as field devices, and management devices that perform management and control thereof. Almost all of the communication systems that are the basis of such distributed control systems have communicated by cable, and in recent years ones that perform communication conforming to industrial wireless communication standards such as ISA100 and WirelessHART (registered trademark) and the like have been implemented.
The above-noted ISA100 is an industrial automation wireless communication standard that was established by the ISA (International Society of Automation). In contrast, the above-noted WirelessHART (registered trademark) is a wireless communication standard proposed by the HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer) Communication Foundation in the US.
Communication systems implemented in a plant or the like often use a single wireless communication standard. This is because it is basically not possible to communicate between systems using different wireless communication standards. For this reason, in a given plant the communication systems are implemented to conform to ISA100, while in another plant the communication systems are implemented to conform to WirelessHART (registered trademark). Although communication systems of different wireless communication standards are sometimes implemented in one plant, in such cases each of the communication systems exists as a separate system.
In Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, although there is no art regarding a communication system performing wireless communication conforming to an industrial wireless communication standard, there is disclosure of are that enables communication between networks using different communication protocols. Specifically, there is disclosure of are that enables connection between a network that uses the IPv4 protocol and a network that uses the IPv6 protocol, by making use of a DSTM (dual stack transition mechanism).